The present invention is directed to systems, apparatuses and methods for protecting, storing, organizing and/or displaying printed sheets, photographs, clippings from periodicals, handwritten pages, drawings and so forth. As an example, the invention is concerned with user-customizable ring binder indexing systems. Further examples are user-customizable sheet protector apparatuses and particularly those which are at least partially transparent so that their sheet contents can be viewed and those which have binder ring holes.
A number of protecting and organizing systems are known in the prior art. One example is shown in FIG. 1 and referring thereto, a prior art system shown generally at 100 is the READY INDEX—CONTEMPORARY TABLE OF CONTENTS—DIVIDERS PRODUCT available from Avery Dennison Corporation of Pasadena, Calif., and illustrated assembled in a three ring binder 104 with the user's document pages 108 filed therein. The system 100 is sold in a package that includes the table of contents page 112 and a set of tabbed dividers 116. The illustrated prior art embodiment includes a five tab set, but the product is also available in an eight tab set, as well as ten, twelve and fifteen months, A-Z, and 1-31 tab sets. Each of the tabs 120 of the tabbed dividers 116 may have a sequential number 124 pre-printed thereon, and each tab can be colored with a different color (e.g., yellow, orange, red, magenta and purple).
The table of contents page 112 has a series of pre-printed fields, one above the other, and abutting the right edge. Each of the fields is aligned with a separate tab 120, when the table of contents page 112 is aligned or stacked with the dividers 116, such as when filed in a ring binder 104 through the binder holes 124 in the table of contents page 112 and each of the tabbed dividers, as illustrated in FIG. 1. Each of the fields has a central block 128, a right edge strip 132, a connecting horizontal line 136 and a (blank) block 140 between the central block and the strip and above the line. The central block 128 and the strip 132 are printed or formed with the same color (e.g., yellow, orange, etc.) as the color of the corresponding (adjacent, aligned) tab 120. And the same number 142 (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5) as the number 124 on the corresponding tab 120 is pre-printed in the central block 128.
The user, after removing the table of contents page 112, dividers and instruction sheet (not shown), from the retail packaging follows the instructions on the instruction sheet to custom design or format the page on his/her personal computer using existing software. For example, he/she can use preset layouts in existing software such as MICROSOFT WORD FOR WINDOWS, COREL WORDPERFECT FOR WINDOWS, COREL WORDPERFECT FOR DOS, LOTUS WORD PRO AND LOTUS AMI PRO, following the instructions in the instruction sheet, such as the QUICK START!, copyright 1998, instruction sheet. (The entire contents of this instruction sheet publication and all other publications and patents and applications mentioned anywhere in this disclosure are hereby incorporated by reference.) The user thereby designs the section titles 144. (The user can also put titles in the table of contents via typewriter, labels and handwriting.)
The user then prints the titles 144 onto the table of contents page 112 using a laser or ink jet printer or copier. He/she then assembles the document using the custom-printed table of contents page 112, matching pre-printed tabs 120, and document pages into the three ring binder 104 to form system 100. A problem with system 100 is that only a single table of contents page 112 is provided in the package, and thus if the user or the printer makes a mistake in formatting or printing the titles or if the user changes his mind as to the desired titles, another package having another table of contents page must be purchased. In other words and more specifically—the table of contents page 112 can rip, get dirty or wrinkled and thus some consumers find them to not be sufficiently durable; the page has a specific orientation requiring that the user load it in the printer in a specific direction, with printing errors resulting if it is not loaded properly; and since only one page is provided in a package, a printing error essentially ruins the entire packaged set.
Another prior art custom-designed table of contents sheet system (not illustrated in the drawings) is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,503,435 (Kline). Pursuant to the '435 patented system, first and second tabbed index sheets and a table of contents page are provided. First and second labels are releasably attached to the front of the table of contents page generally adjacent to but spaced from descriptive field areas on the page. The page is passed through a printer or copier, and custom indicia are printed on the labels and in the field areas in the same printing operation. The labels are then removed by the user and attached by their adhesive backings to the respective tabs. The labels before printing are adhered directly to the page inward of the descriptive field areas, to a removable carrier strip, which is adhered to the front of the page or to a tear-away strip at the bottom of the page. This system does not have the flexibility in construction and is a little more labor intensive than some users desire.
Another prior art divider apparatus is illustrated in FIG. 2, generally at 200, and is commercially available as the CLIP AND CREATE VIEW DIVIDERS product from the Avery Dennison Corporation. This apparatus 200 includes a clear plastic pocket 204 having an open top 208, a binder strip 212 with binder holes 216 along its left edge and a tab 218, which extends out from the right edge and has an open top 224. Provided in the retail package in addition to a set of these pocket apparatuses, is a sheet (not shown) having a strip of perforated tab inserts and printed instructions. The titles 228 for the tabs 220 are formatted using templates available in many different software programs. The tab title words, fonts and margins are selected by the user on his/her personal computer using the program. The tab sheet is loaded into the manual feed tray of the user's printer, and the tab inserts 220 are printed. The printed inserts 220 are separated from each other and the surrounding sheet along the perimeter perforations. The separated, printed tab inserts 220 and then folded and inserted into the tab holders through the open tops 224, as show by the arrow 234 in FIG. 2.
The desired sheet material 240, such as printed or handwritten sheets, photographs, clippings, and so forth, are inserted into the pocket 204 through the open top 208 and are visible through the clear front panel 244 of the pocket. The tab title 228 can be a descriptor of the inserted material 240 or can be a sequential indicia (such as numbers, months, etc.). The pocket apparatus 200, together with other pockets, can be inserted into a three ring binder, such as that shown in FIG. 1 at 104. Although this product is useful in, for example, personalizing school subjects and memory books, it does not provide for a table of contents sheet or other means of personalizing, decorating, indexing or labeling the pocket contents (240).